Laura Carlin's descriptions of poverty-stricken nineteenth century London are so powerful you can just about smell it. Her prose is beautiful and affecting. The story itself is interesting, though it does come together a bit too neatly in the end. A few reviewers have commented on it being 'lesbian fiction'. If this is putting you off, don't let it - there's nothing graphic and it doesn't take up much of the story. It's simply a growing love between two people, which you'll find in many books.

Set in the slums of 1830's London, this story gives a Gothic style description of the life of Hester White who worked herself up in society. Later in life her past catches up and starts hunting her.

The story is a bit slow, writing style lyrical but the character building was good. Somewhere on the way the story gets lost though and turns from a page turner into a 'I want to get this book to be over'. It turns unrealistic, unbelievable and predictable.

It's not mine BUT there's loads of people who'd disagree with me and that's fine. 3 Stars from me though, sadly because it could have been more if the ending would have been better.

I started out by really loving this book. I was wrapped up in the story and was enjoying the plot. However about a third of the was through I just stalled and despite multiple attempts I just couldn't get back into it. I have no problem with the style of writing it just felt like I'd read similar before.

Difficult book to get into - I felt it overwritten and very slow. I felt the premise to be fine, it just hadn't got any pace. The characters were fairly likeable, but it was just... it wasn't for me.

Disappointing.

Unspeakable evil lurks in Georgian London

Young, impoverished men and women are disappearing all over London, and their absence is going unnoticed until orphaned Hester White and her mentor, Rebekah Brock start to investigate the disappearances. Hester was raised in a parsonage in the country where her father used to enthral her with stories of London. After being orphaned at 11 Hester is taken in by the family of her fathers’ former gardener and they move to London, but not to the London that her father used to tell her about. They move to the backstreets of London that are dark, filthy and teeming with thieves and vagrants. One day Hester falls under the wheels of a carriage that belongs to a young physician, Calder Brock, who is a member of the London Society for the Suppression of Mendicity. Calder takes her in while she is healing and then decides that using her, he will be able to demonstrate that “even those from the gutter can be educated” to the society, so he whisks her off to Waterford Hall, the Brock country residence to convalesce in the country air. He entrusts her to his sister, Rebekah, and a deep attraction grows between the two women as Hester proves to be an apt pupil. A misunderstanding causes Hester to return to London where she and Rebekah pursue truth, redemption and passion.

The book was enjoyable and easy to read and took me to a London that I am glad I do not have to visit today. It was a dark time when women were thought of as ornamental and not mentally capable of much. When your station in life determined who you were and how you would be treated. And, most importantly of all when the medical profession was barbaric and yet viewed with awe and reverence.

Saphira

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

An intense, dark foray into the deeper reaches of the human psyche. Carlin evokes the underbelly of Victorian London brilliantly, and the sense of unease grows steadily - a gripping read.

DNF at 25%.

I requested this book because the blurb made it sound really interesting and really gripping. The book itself... wasn’t really. It turns from a detective/investigative novel into a romance, and I just wasn’t interested in the romance at all.

The introduction was a info dump and the plot progressed so slowly, and it was so boring.

Wow! A splendid book, so beautifully written I will be surprised if it is not made into a film or TV series. The background and each character were so well described that it can be visualised instantly. A detective style novel with evoking the full range of emotions: sadness, elation, despair, suspense and disgust. Loved it.

Any reader who loves Sarah Waters or Charles Dickens will relish this book. The author evokes the atmosphere of late Georgian London, the smells and sights described in sickening detail.
It tells the story of Hester, a young woman who has fallen on hard times after the death of her parents. After an accident she is taken to the home of a doctor and his sister, Rebekah. The story then takes a sinister turn involving medicine, murder and missing people.
I really couldn't put the book down until I had discovered what was going on in Hester's life.
Well worth a read if you already enjoy a Gothic novel and a great introduction to the genre if you have not read one.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.
Beautifully written atmospheric, Victorian novel. From the beginning you are instantly taken back to 1831. I loved the descriptions of the dark side of London and the way the author portrays life both for the people in poverty and those more fortunate. Historical fiction with elements of a mystery and a love story I would highly recommend this novel.

Hester White is a bright and unusual girl who through bad luck and tragedy has lost her genteel life and ended up in the slums of Victorian London. But more bad luck in the form of ending up under the wheels of a gentleman's carriage actually leads to an opportunity of escape from her hellish existence. She finds herself taken under the wing and tutelage of the aristocratic Brock family, in particular Rebekah Brock. But strange disappearances both in her new world and previous existence threaten her new life. She and Rebekah find themselves pulled into macabre investigation that threatens all that they both hold dear.

This is both an interesting and complex mystery and a genuinely touching love story. I've been wondering for awhile what happened to proper love stories that didn't involve werewolves/billionaires/Scottish lairds been all moody/rich/in another century. Well thank the stars I've found one here. The only problem was I kind of lost interest in the mystery part of the novel and ended up mainly been interested in Hester and Rebekahs story. But that was worth 4 stars alone. The ending was a little weak and convenient so it lost a star for that. But still a great love story and pretty darned good mystery to boot.

I really struggled with this. I think when I sat down to read it, I was in the middle of a reading slump, and nothing was going to pull me out of it.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I did end up giving up on it but I’ll trybreading it again in the future.

This was a very atmospheric, historical fiction story. You can almost see and smell the streets of London all those years ago. The characters are very realistic and bring the story to life. A fascinating read and an look at the early development of surgery and medicine.

The atmosphere throughout is tense and evokes a vivid sense of London during the early 1800 where the poorest of society eked out a living by any which way they could. It is not for the faint hearted and is decidedly grim.

I found that this title really got under my skin. The underlying menace right from the beginning was unsettling and had me intrigued. The way the story is written is very atmospheric and the level of historical detail and description draws you back into the murky past of London's back streets. Hester and Rebekah's sweet relationship is a contrast to the darkness surrounding them and I found myself unable to stop reading as I wanted to know what they uncovered next as their relationship tentatively blossomed. I will definitely be looking out for future titles by this author.

I’m really in two minds about this book. On the one hand, I really admire the author’s absolutely exemplary research and attention to historical detail. The novel is meticulously researched. The settings are portrayed so well, the sounds, sights and smells of the time and places so well written, you really feel like you’re there.

And Hester has the potential to be a compelling main character. Her circumstances show how easy it was (and still is) to find yourself only just surviving in a cruel and unfair world, and her feelings for Rebekah come across as genuine and are written in a heartfelt way that lacks any sentimentality.

And the subject matter has so much potential too – the poverty of London, the plight of the poor, the terror of mysterious disappearances, all based in the real history of a time when the poor counted for nothing and their lives were viewed as worthless. Fiction mixed with real events and history is something that I love to read.

But for me it was really overwritten. There’s a balance when writing historical fiction in that it needs to be authentic but also accessible. A writer like Hilary Mantel makes this look easy. And Sarah Water’s masterful ‘Fingersmith’ (which this reminded me of) does this beautifully. This book, however, felt overblown and overdone in parts and I did find myself skipping over some of it. A good, brave edit, cutting things down and adding clarity would do wonders for this book. The story felt lost under all the writing at times. Which was a shame, because it could be brilliant.

I can't fault the research though, or the idea behind the novel. If there was a rating between three and a half and four stars, that's what I'd give this book - but there isn't so I'll go for four as I would read more by Laura Carlin.

Thanks to the NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

It’s not often that I stumble upon a rare story like this which tugs at my heart strings, but when I do manage to uncover a gem like this it’s proven that these stories are rare as hell. You’ll have more luck finding your soulmate twice in the same week than finding a book as good as this one.

Lest we forget, this is either because Carlin creates a perfect balance between the budding mutual attraction of Hester and Rebekah or, in my own opinion, the author has an obvious passion and respect for both her characters and the story she’s trying to tell. In fact, let’s be honest: two girls falling in love in a society governed by automatic expectations filtered through black and white norms have one massive obstacle blocking their path to eventual happiness.

And some much wanted hanky panky.

On a serious note, I both love and hate the fact that Carlin creates this tug of war between the reader and Hester’s often-tumultuous emotions: we both want the girl to be happy and to take a daring step to confide her attraction to the slightly older Miss Brock, but then reality throws us a curve ball and Hester is back to scrubbing pots while being plagued by the warmth of her loins.

Sigh.

As annoying as this story element becomes, Carlin has proven herself a master at the art of dangling something right in front of our faces, seducing us with pretty words (even a slight touch or a warm whisper) before yanking that sucker so far out of our reach that I can only sit and feel completely helpless.

The second part of this beautiful and heart-wrenching story comes in the form of an English investigation with, there you have it, more than a few fantastic revelations. With certain things being kept in the family and numerous influences of the outside world taking a gander at the interwoven fates of the characters, including the situations they find themselves in, things soon become apparent that the muddy streets of London might be considered cleaner than the secrets harbored by those closer to home. with nothing left to chance and not shying away from prying open the layers of London’s seedy underbelly, Hester and Rebekah make quite the detective team I’m certain Sherlock Holmes would want to recruit.

Stick with this story to the end and you’ll be sending me a personal ‘Thank you’ letter. I don’t know if Carlin herself might blindly stumble upon this review, but if she does: job well done, ma’am.

A gothic Victorian murder mystery set in the early nineteenth century. Impoverished orphan Hester is rescued after an accident and sent to convalesce at a country house where she is taken under the wing of heiress Rebekah Brock. But danger is lurking in the house and in the dark streets of London, people are going missing and Hester's life is threatened. A darkly compelling novel that is rich with atmosphere.

Historical murder mystery at its best with a lovely lead character and lots of great description of life at the time.